June News & Views
At Our June 25 General Meeting, The Focus Is You!
Recent Third Act Faith General Meetings have featured speakers, but this summer we return to a more basic format: a meeting focused on you, our TAF members. On Tuesday June 25, and again on Tuesday July 30, we’ll want to learn:
What led you to join TAF?
What concerns you most about the climate crisis?
What is the most pressing issue in this election season?
What do you see yourself doing to effect change?
Of course there’ll be music, some “centering time,” and brief updates as usual — but most of the meeting will be small breakout groups featuring you and your ideas. As an enticement, we’ll be giving away $25 gift cards for Third Act merchandise to two lucky participants!
Both meetings start at 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET.
For more details or to register, click on THIS LINK.
Join us for ‘Preaching an Election Sermon – An Interfaith Workshop’ August 27
As we approach what many regard as the most consequential election in history, clergy must face the question of whether or not to preach an election sermon, and if so, how to faithfully address the choices and challenges before us. This workshop is for clergy and congregational leaders seeking to discern how God may be calling them to speak to this time of decision.
The two-hour Zoom workshop will be led by the Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, Rabbi Stephanie Kolin, and Imam Jamal Rahman. A founding member of Third Act Faith, Rev. Antal is Special Advisor on Climate Justice to the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. Rabbi Kolin of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn has served as Rabbi of Union Temple, of Central Synagogue in Manhattan, and as Associate Rabbi at Temple Israel in Boston. Imam Rahman is co-founder and Muslim Sufi minister at Interfaith Community Sanctuary in Seattle, Washington, and is a popular speaker on Islam, Sufi spirituality, and interfaith relations.
Those who attended our May panel discussion on the Sacred Right to Vote will remember that Rev. Antal and Rabbi Kolin were part of that compelling conversation (read about the panel here and view the video here).
The Zoom workshop will be Tuesday, August 27, at 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.
TAF Will Offer a Contemplative Service for the ‘Summer of Heat’
Members of Third Act were on hand when “Summer of Heat” launched June 10 in NYC and took the lead on Elders Day on June 13, when 56 people, mostly elders, were arrested for blocking the entrance to Citigroup headquarters with their rocking chairs. (See videos on Instagram and X, and read a brief news story on the DemocracyNow! website.) As Third Act and its partners keep the heat on Wall Street this summer, Third Act Faith is preparing a recorded contemplative service to provide spiritual grounding for those taking actions.
Like the TAF Service of Solidarity prior to the National Day of Action on 3.21.23, this service will include contemplative elements that speak across religions to consider the ethical motivation for climate action and the spiritual aspects of such work. While the SOS was a live Zoom event, the SOH service will be recorded and made available to individuals or congregations taking action during Elders Week (July 8-13), Faith Week (July 29-August 3), or any of the 12 weeks of Summer of Heat.
If you do not live close enough to New York to take action on Wall Street, consider organizing something in your community during Elders Week or Faith Week. Visit Third Act’s Summer of Heat page to locate an action near you or to register one you are planning, and watch for our contemplative service, which will be available soon.
Third Act Partners with Chautauqua and Planet Forward in Intergenerational Storytelling Project
As the fabled Chautauqua Institution celebrates its 150th anniversary, it is looking ahead through a partnership with Third Act and Planet Forward, a climate storytelling project for college students. With the future now being shaped by climate change, the three organizations are developing a model of intergenerational dialogue on this pressing issue to capture insights of elders and youth and to catalyze climate action across generations.
Chautauqua, located in southwestern New York State, began as a summer educational opportunity for Sunday school teachers, but broadened to include general learning as well as literature, music, art, and recreation. It now offers a nine-week summer program that features talks by leaders in these fields. In recent years, the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative has brought “sustained focus to perhaps the most consequential issue today, climate change.”
As part of this effort, CHQ will launch the storytelling project during their Week Five this summer (July 20-27), whose theme is “Our Greatest Challenges (That We Can Actually Do Something About).” On July 24, TA Founder Bill McKibben will return to CHQ for a conversation with journalist Frank Sesno, who leads Planet Forward, about how elders and young people can work together to “do something” about climate change.
The project is also seeking up to eight intergenerational pairs who know each other well to participate in a workshop that week. These could be a parent and child, grandparent and grandchild, other relatives, teacher and student, or friends. The younger of the pair will interview the elder about how they’ve experienced climate change in their lifetime.
Both partners have insights to share, as Sesno writes in the project description: “Some will look back on years, maybe decades, of life experience as you take stock of the present and the future. Your life trajectory has provided you with rich stories and clear lessons that provide context, texture and understanding. Others will have less history and more of a future perspective. You still have experiences, stories and ideas, but you’re looking ahead because that’s where you’ll live and where you’ll make your mark.”
If you will be at Chautauqua during Week Five (July 20-27) and are interested in participating in the workshop, please contact Mark Wenzler at MWenzler@chq.org. If you cannot be at Chautauqua, you can watch Bill McKibbon’s and Frank Sesno’s conversation on CHQ’s streaming platform, Chautauqua Assembly. In addition, organizers hope to roll out the storytelling initiative beyond the participants in this pilot project — which would have special resonance for Third Act Faith, given the role of storytelling in many religions.
TAF intro sessions Weeks 4 and 5
In conjunction with this project, TAF Membership and Communications Chair Jane Ellen Nickell will be hosting information sessions about TAF on Wednesday, July 17 and Wednesday, July 24 at 3:30 PM at the United Methodist House. If you’re already involved with TAF, we hope you’ll drop by to help greet folks and learn what TAF is working on.
Upcoming Contemplative Sessions
Our monthly online contemplative practices continue with a Lovingkindness Meditation on June 26, led by Jennifer Helwarth, and a Mindfulness Meditation on July 16, led by Sharon Salzburg. Both are experienced meditation teachers who will lead us in short online sessions to bring clarity, equanimity, and a sense of peace in these stressful times. If you plan to join us, please register on our Events page, but note that these gatherings will not be recorded.
In Climate News This Month…
JUNE 5 — Each of the last 12 months has broken heat records as the Earth has sweltered under the highest temperatures in more than 10,000 years. Earlier this month the World Meteorological Organization said it's now more than likely that in the next 5 years we'll surpass the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) mark, the temperature countries set out to avoid when they signed the 2015 Paris Agreement. More from The New York Times (free link). One of the many results of the intense warming was noted in a June 13 scientific report from Nature communications: Hudson Bay polar bears will likely die off completely as the ice they live on becomes too thin to support them.
JUNE 11 — Coming on the heels of that bad news, though, Bill McKibben writes that we are finally reaching the “S curve” — the turning “from minimal reliance on renewable energy to—we must hope and pray— minimal dependence on fossil fuel.” “The question is whether we’ll plateau out at current levels of fossil fuel use for a decade or more, or whether we can make fossil fuel use decline enough to begin to matter to the atmosphere.” To learn more, read Bill’s Substack post here.
A VISITOR IN JUNE to the the oddly named Special Areas of the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska will find millions of nesting migratory birds — nearly 500 species. Long summer days let them mate and raise their young while food is plentiful before flying back south for the winter. The NPR-A supports more than 5 million breeding waterbirds. In April the Biden administration finalized protections for this vast area, including a ban on new oil and gas leasing within 10.6 million acres of the reserve. By codifying the NPR-A Special Area protections, the Biden Administration is establishing a rule that will be difficult for a future administration to overturn, say activists. (Visit Cornell Lab’s All About Birds website to learn more about this vast area and its habitat.)
Watch this video of Alaska's wetlands with migratory nesting birds.
AS WE HEAD INTO SUMMER, the dams are being removed from the Klamath River in California. This is one of the world’s largest habitat restoration projects, certainly the world’s largest dam removal effort. One dam has already been removed; three more will come down soon. In the short term, there’s a lot of mud: a century’s worth of sediment is passing downstream. But water quality is improving already, and toxic algae blooms may soon be a thing of the past. The newly cleared river will once again be a good habitat for salmon and other fish and wildlife. MORE FROM AMERICAN RIVERS.
Upcoming Events
Click on the link to register for the online events.
June 25: TAF General Meeting (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
June 26: Contemplative Practice: Lovingkindness Meditation with Jennifer Hellwarth, Ph.D. (Zoom), 11:00 AM PST / 2:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
July 1: Welcome to Third Act: Let’s Get Started: Register to join Third Act's volunteers and learn about campaigns. (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
July 17: TAF Information session at Chautauqua, United Methodist House, 3:30 PM. No registration necessary.
July 24: TAF Information session at Chautauqua, United Methodist House, 3:30 PM. No registration necessary.
July 30: TAF General Meeting (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
August 27: Preaching an Election Sermon: An Interfaith Workshop with the Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, Rabbi Stephanie Kolin, and Imam Jamal Rahman. (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
Send us your photos and stories
Please send us news items, reflections, story ideas and photos that we can use on our web pages and include in our monthly email. Send the submissions to thirdactfaith@gmail.com.
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